See You Tonight?

Tonight we meet at Pi's Restaurant for our annual Christmas get togeher.  Hope to see you there!  The time is 6:00 p.m.  Refer to your December Newsletter for the details of what to bring along with your appetite.  Looking forward to a good time. 

Claire Yost

Last Friday, a former member of Quilters Squared left us after a long and hard fought battle against cancer.  Claire Yost passed away at the age of 57.   Way too young to go, she left this world a better place for having been here.  I am sure there are many of you in the guild now who did not know Claire, but if you had known her you would share the same feelings that we are experiencing at this sad time.   She had cancer for over 20 years and still maintained a zest for life and wore a big smile on her face endearing herself to everyone coming in contact with her.  I always felt in awe of Claire and am so glad I was able to be in the circle of people who were part of her life, even if just in a small way.  She will be missed by so many.  Our hearts go out to her family.   Her obituary is in the Midland paper this afternoon with the time and place for services. 

Site Addition

Heh Everyone - I've added a page called "Event Information" below our header. You will find more detailed information about Special Events like the International Quilt Road Trip in Cincinnati and our planned Retreat at the Springs. Let me know if you have any problems opening documents.

Jewels

QUILT SHOW at CMU

Heh everyone - if you've not heard about it - CMU is currently hosting a quilt show and next Monday PM (Nov 22nd from 1-3) Debbie Ballard will be the featured speaker - here is more information:

Quilts Old and New: Reproductions from the Great Lakes Quilt Center
An exhibit on loan from the Michigan State University Museum
Oct 26 - Dec 17th
Baber Room, Park Library
CMU, Mt. Pleasant

Exhbit and Talk are Free to the Public (like that!). Why not gather some of your quilty trips for a road trip! Go to this site for more information on gallery hours.....

Sit and Sew Tomorrow

Time for Sit and Sew tomorrow!   Hope to see you there - at the Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church from 10 to 3.  All the information is in the sidebar to the left.  If you haven't joined us before, I urge you to come and enjoy a day or part of a day with your fellow Q2 members.  Bring whatever you want to work on by hand or machine.  It's a good group and you will be glad you came.  As it says on the sidebar, you can bring a lunch or go out to eat - whatever you wish.  We each give a small donation for the use of the room.   Hope to see you there. 

Challenge Quilt Sign Up

Everyone - we have over 20 folks signed up for our Challenge Quilt "Wish Were Here". If you click on the link above you will see the guidelines and what countries have already been selected. We still have some open spots (please no duplicates): Spain, Greece, India, Phillipines, New Zealand, Israel, Thailand, Nepal, Kenya, Peru, Argentina, Bahama...or any other country you do not see on our list.

If you want to join please contact Julie Oman and we will get you signed up. Would like to see all your quilts for the March 2011 meeting - and entered into next year's quilt show!

An Easy Way to Trace Patterns

For you embroiderers out there, I found this great idea for tracing patterns.   

 I am going to try this method to print out patterns for fusible applique.  I think the fusible  cut letter size  should run through the printer easily.   Click on the picture to make the page larger for easy reading.



A Great OnLine Magazine

I happened upon a really great website that had just put up a magazine for Christmas crafts.  It's really fun and has some very cute ideas that are not a lot of trouble.  See the little baskets - made from egg carton sections.  And the cutest snow village out of cereal boxes (it would be more time consuming but they would be quite an addition to your decorations.  Would you like to see it?  Go to http://inspireco.blogspot.com/2010/11/inspired-ideas-christmas-issue.html and enjoy yourself.  Click on the magazine. You can view it full screen and go page by page by clicking on arrows that appear along the side of the page as your cursor hovers over it.  If you like it, leave a comment!  A really fun on-line magazine.  (Click to enlarge)

November Q2 Meeting

Quilters Squared met last night - a nice turnout and show and tell featured some great pieces by our guild members.  (There is a new slide show up - just click on one of the pictures and you will go to Flickr where you can see many of our pictures.)   Marcia Stanick was the lucky winner of the door prize which was a cute nutcracker all decked out in a sewing themed outfit.   Karen Gruber furnished the prize this month.

Yesterday was a class taught by Darlene Leosh  and the gals who took the class all lined up and did a show and tell of what they had accomplished.  From the smiles and comments, it appears that it was a fun, productive day for all those in attendance. 

Darlene also presented the program - showing and telling about her beautiful quilts and jackets that she has made. 


Darlene and one of her bargello quilts



A bargello quilt without the "skinny" pieces

Beautiful paper pieced quilt

Sorry it's fuzzy - this was my very favorite so wanted to put it in.

This last picture is of a reproduction of an old "tile" quilt.  Just absolutely gorgeous.  Darlene also had many beautiful jackets to show and will be teaching a jacket making class next year.  Count me in on that one!   Thank you for a great program, Darlene. 
 (Click to enlarge)

+November Meeting+

Tuesday, November 9th 6:30 Social, 7:00 Program. Our guest this month will be Darlene Leosh who will also be doing a class the same day. Bring your show and tell, your placemats, and guests! We will be hearing about the Quilt Show (early planning) and other news for 2011 (yes, it is just around the corner). Look forward to seeing everyone.

Jewels and Fun Old Hag...

Remodeling

We've done a little remodeling to add more information to our Blog. Notice the Titles under our Banner? Click on any one to open a new page.
NEW - Mystery Quilt has the monthly clues you can download and/or print. 2011 Quilt Show has all the information about our show with more details to come.

Any and all suggestions are welcome!
Jewels and Fun Old Hag

Sit and Sew Tomorrow

Don't forget tomorrow, October 19th, is Sit and Sew - Check out the last item on the right sidebar for all the information!  See you there? 

Quilt Barn Trail

If you happen to be up Northern Michigan way you might want to check out the Barns of Old Mission Penninsula and their lovely quilt designs. I picked up this brochure in Traverse City - it is also available on the Web at the above link. If you go we would love to get your pics to share with others...

Q2 October Meeting

Pictured is Carol Rose, one of our guild members, who gave a great talk on the art of fitting vests to our vastly different shapes.  Carol is an accomplished seamstress and makes gorgeous quilts, also.  She is one of our talented machine quilters. 

She brought along a dozen or more beautiful vests that she had made - truly works of art and meticulously made.   Carol is shown here with Deb Badur who gave her a hand with the vests.  A delightful presentation, Carol.

Nancy Stanley, our president, announced that we now have 63 paid memberships.  There were several visitors at the meeting last night.  Hopefully, they will come back and join us. 

Good news to hear that Elaine Cruise and Darlene Smith will co-chair the quilt show this coming spring.  Thank you so much for coming forward!!  Julie Oman's records will give you what you need to carry through with this and you will have the help of numerous talented and hardworking ladies working with you. 

Nancy Wyss was the winner of the 50/50 - again!!   Good for you, Nancy!!  Have to tease you a bit!  All in good fun.

The batik jelly roll exchange is beginning and will follow the colors of the rainbow - first red, then orange, etc.  Should be a lot of gorgeous batiks gathered over the guild year.

Leslie Peterson gave information on the trip to Cincinnati to the big quilt show in April and also for the retreat in Gaylord in June.

If you wish to do so, we are gathering placemats to be used for meals on wheels.  They are to be generic and suitable for a man or woman and for anytime of the year.  If you wish to make some and bring them to guild you will be greeted with open arms. 

Next month people will sign up for the Christmas dinner - my goodness, that will be here before we know it!

New show and tell slide show up in the right side bar.

Don't Forget

Don't forget - tomorrow evening, October 12th, is the monthly meeting of Quilters Squared starting at 6:30 PM for social time and 7:00PM for the meeting. 
You will be able to sign up for the 2010-11 Challenge Quilts if you have not already done so.  The theme this year is "Wish You Were Here".
50/50 drawing is furnished by Helen Mudd.
If you signed up for the Jelly Roll excahnge, don't forget that it's red batiks this time.
Carol Rose will give a presentation on "How to fit a Vest"
And, of course, our meetings are held at Our Redeemer Church, 889 S. Poseyville Rd. (next to Randy's Green Thumb).

See you there!

Linda's Paper Piecing Class

 On Tuesday, October 5th, a paper piecing class was taught by Linda McGibbon, a master in this art.  Here is the beautiful wall hanging that she taught us how to piece.  She does all her own designs on EQ6 now EQ7.  Linda was very clear in her instructions and took some of the worry out of paper piecing.  Each one in class was doing really good work and the resulting pieces will be beautiful. 

Some of us missed out on the class or part of the class.  I was so sure it was on Wednesday and didn't go (there is a story about my day that I will not bore you with) but Earlene called me and wondered where I was.  I did come out by about 1:00 but was rather rattled - more so than usual!!  Another one that was called was our prez pictured above, Nancy.  She had forgotten until she was called.  Another girl was thinking the class was the same day that I thought it was and the fourth was ill and we hope and pray she is fine. 

Earlene with her pretty start on the wall hanging. 

   

Deb, it's going to be just gorgeous!

A big smile from one of our new members, Melissa - my dear, I hope I got that right! 

Here's the nice lady that sends out our newsletters!  One of the wedges of her piece is in the foreground and another gorgeous wall hanging.

A pretty smile from Jean as she works on her piece.  That one is a beauty, also.

Marlene's choice of fabrics is so pretty.  They all are going to be wonderful.

Love Nancy's colors.  Fun class and fun ladies attending.

Johanna - look at that smile.  Her wall hanging is going to be lovely.

Guess who - don't have much to show for my day afternoon there but I enjoyed every minute and will be working on mine soon.  I have done some paper piecing, but not the smaller pieces.  Thanks to Linda, I am not leery of them anymore.

If you would like to save any of these pictures to your computer just click to enlarge then save as to whatever file you want them in.  There are some good pictures of you girls there.

Fruit Pincushions

At our last meeting someone was asking about an Apple pincushion....Thanks to MaryAnn for sending this information - Heather Bailey has some wonderful designs you can find at her website...

Two Upcoming Fun Events for Q2 Members

Here is the first of two great opportunities to enjoy the company of your fellow Q2 members and let your eyes drink in the beauty of all the lovely quilts to see and enjoy the wares of the many vendors that will be at the Festival in Cincinnati.  The information on the first trip follows:

MIDLAND QUILTERS SQUARED Road Trip to:

International Quilt Festival
Cincinnati, Ohio

April 7 - 9, 2011

April 7th
Leave Midland at 7:00 AM
Stop in Bluffton, OH at Forever in Stitches & Lunch
Stop in Fairborn, OH at Applachain Quilts
Arrive at Hyatt Regency at 4:00 PM
Preview Night at the Show 5:00 - 9:00 PM

April 8th

Spend the day at the International Quilt Festival
Duke Energy Center (walking distance from the hotel)
10:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Evening
Spend the evening at one of Cincinnati’s downtown restaurants or
take the bus across the river to Newport on the Levee and Newport
Aquarium for dinner, shopping and entertainment. also available a
Cruise/Dinner Cruise on one of
BB Riverboat’s 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

April 9th

Spend another day at the show
10:00 AM -3:00 PM
or visit The Cincinnati Museum Center and Omnimax Theatre
10:00 AM -3:00 PM

Depart Hotel at 4:00 PM

Stop at Olive Garden for Dinner

Arrive Midland 11:30 PM (Approx)

Note:  This trip is limited to 40 quilters on a first come, first served
basis.  Friends welcome.


Prices
Bus Transportation provided by Mitchell Buses . . . . . . . $115.00
Hyatt Regency - We have a block of twenty rooms for our group
please see Linda McGibbon to reserve your room)
(double occupancy - 2 nights) . . . . . $149.76/person for 2 nights
(breakfast not included)

Please contact Leslie Peterson or Linda McGibbon for more
information

Check the following web sites for more information:
International Quilt Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://quilts.com
Hyatt Regency Cincinnati . . . . . . . . http://cincinnati.hyatt.com
Forever in Stitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.fisllc.com
Appalachian Quits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://quiltweb.net
Cincinnati Museum Center
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.cincymuseum.org/default.asp
BB RiverBoat Cruise . . . . . . . http://www.bbriverboats.com/
Newport on the Levee . http://www.newportonthelevee.com/
Newport Aquarium . . . . . . http://www.newportaquarium.com/


The second of the fun activities is a Summer Retreat in Gladwin next June.  If you have never been on a retreat, you are in for a good time.  I would urge you to go if you are free at that time. 


A Summer Retreat atThe Springs

1940 N. M-30
Gladwin, MI 48624
989-426-7604
http://thespringscamp.com/
June 6-9, 2011

Quilting Center
The Springs is a Christian Camp and Year Round Retreat Center. They
host several quilting retreats throughout the year.
Our retreat starts at 9:00 AM on Monday, June 6th and ends at 5:00 PM
on Thursday, June 9th..
Each person will have a 6' table & padded chair. Bring a cushion or your
own chair for comfort. Bring your Ott lights too. We will have work
stations setup for cutting & ironing. Plus they have a wall for designing
quilts which can be shared by several people. Be sure to bring your
projects, rulers, rotary cutters, cutting mats, etc.

Meals
All meals are included starting with lunch on Monday and ending with
lunch on Thursday. The meals will be served buffet-style and are
prepared by the retreats staff. We will have a snack table for anyone
who wants to bring something to share. There is a refrigerator,
microwave and pop machine

Other Activities
The Springs is located next to the Sugar River. For those who are
adventurous, you can kayak or canoe - bring your own or use one of
theirs. They also offer a Zip Line Activity for $5.00 with a 10 person
minimum.

White Elephant Auction We will host a white elephant auction
with the benefits being donated to the Center for their youth
programs. So bring items from your stash that you no longer want,
and will be auction them off

Rooms The Springs offer 20 hotel style rooms with private
bathroom. Each room contains 2 double beds - linens, towels &
wash clothes are included. Please bring your own soaps and
shampoos.

Prices Four days and three nights including lunch & dinner on day
1, breakfast, lunch & dinner on day 2 & 3 and breakfast & lunch on
day 4

Double occupancy /person $185.00

Contacts Leslie Peterson 989-450-0697 or Linda McGibbon

989-435-8325


(Artwork was found at http://www.cellasfabrics.com)

Sit and Sew will be on Friday, September 24

Please don't show up at Sit and Sew tomorrow or Tuesday!! For this month only, we will be meeting on Friday, September 24th at the usual time and usual place (10:00 - 3:00 at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson). Hope to see lots of you there ready to work on anything you wish and to enjoy being with all the other quilters. As usual, bring your lunch, eat out or some go get lunch and bring it back. Sewing machines are welcome! I think you will really enjoy the day and it's such a good way to get to know each other.

What Happened To?

You may remember the charity quilts we worked on based on a pattern from Australia. At the time they had horrendous bush fires there, and we thought we could contibute by making blocks and sending them to a gal who was working on making quilts from them.
Well...it was cost prohibitive to send so we decided to use the blocks and make twin size quilts for Shelter House.
Four quilts were completed and I will be taking them over to Shelter House in the next few days. THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this activityUnfortunately, this was not the easiest of quilts to make (as everyone who was involved can attest to).

That said, the quilts that were completed turned out very nice and I know the folks at Shelter House will be very appreciative.

I have a complete set sorted, with all the binding cut, ready to go if anyone is interested (beware, this is not for the faint of heart - it is a pretty tedious pattern). Feel free to contact me.
Sorry for the fuzzy photos - not a really good day for taking pictures...

Jewels

September, 2010, Meeting

Tuesday evening, September 14, a great turnout of Q2 members met for their first meeting of the 2010-11 year. To start the program, Ann Simansky and Patty Rapanos were introduced. Ann and Patty have opened a brand new quilt shop, The Park Bench, in the little shopping center at Swede and Wheeler. A welcome addition to Midland for all the quilters here and those shop hopping around Michigan. It's a bright, lovely shop full of beautiful fabric. I am sure we all will be dropping in and shopping there a lot.

This years Challenge Quilt was revealed by Julie Oman. The theme is "Wish You Were Here" - pick a country and do a 20 x 24 wall hanging in the style of a travel poster. For those of you who didn't get a chance to sign up this month, you will be able to do so at the October meeting. Nice challenge.

Carolyn Freeman and Johanna Frohm are in charge of the Mystery Quilt this year and talked about that. Even the snowbirds will be able to participate in this one.

Nancy Stanley, our president, explained the Rainbow Strip Club of Batiks - that should be a lot of fun, also. A color has been chosen for each month and those participating will bring twelve 2 1/2" strips cut from one yard of batik fabric. In October, the twelve strips will be cut from red batik. The strips you bring in will be mixed with those brought in by others and in November you will take home twelve assorted red pieces.

Deb Badour told us of the classes coming up and there are some good ones. You can check on the left sidebar to see what is offered and hopefully you will be able to sign up for some of them.

Dues ($15.00) are due and accepted by Earlene Albee, our treasurer.

Sit and Sew, a popular spinoff of Q2, has had another change for this month, September. We will be meeting on Friday, September 24 instead of the usual 3rd Tuesday. That is just for this month - in October, it goes back to the usual time.

Leslie Peterson and Linda McGibbon discussed plans for a retreat in Gladwin and a bus trip to a major quilt show next year. Stay tuned and I will post more information on those fun opportunities later on.

Lisa Lien talked of the making of placemats for Meals on Wheels - more will be forthcoming on that also.

And, if you wish to have something posted in our blog, e-mail Julie or Carol. It would be fun, too, if someone would like to put up a post about something - maybe a tutorial or some great hint you have discovered. It can be done!

New Guild Year Begins!

Hello everyone - yep, it is time for our FIRST guild meeting of the 2010/2011 year!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Social Time: 6:30 p.m.
Meeting Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Our Redeemer Church, 889 S. Poseyville Rd., Midland, MI 48640 (next to
Randy's Green Thumb)
Membership dues: $15/year (New members are always welcome! If you quilt, or love quilts, please come and join us! )

We will be introducing this year's Challenge Quilt (Wish You Were Here), a Mystery Quilt, program highlights and information on our 2011 Quilt Show. We will also be finding out about a new store in town, The Park Bench (click link to see their website)! Not a meeting to be missed...

So pack up your Show and Tell items and be there - we look forward to seeing all of you and catching up!

Jewels and Fun Old Hag.....

A Note from Nancy

Hi Quilters,

This year we are going to do a "Rainbow Strip Club" of Batiks. This will replace the fat quarters, interest in it had been low this year.

It was suggested to me that if the folks knew what colors would be collected monthly you could shop this summer before Guild started in the fall. With that in mind here is what you need to look for (this would also allow folks who leave for the winter to leave their exhanges and still be a part of the club,for the months they are gone):

Monthly you will need one yard of Batik's in the color specified cut into 12- 2 1/2 inch strips. You will sign up for the exchange at the September meeting. Each month you will roll your strips and turn them in at the meeting in a zip lock bag with your name on the outside. The following month you will pick up your ziplock with a variety of that color.
September - sign up
October - Red
November - Orange
December - Yellow
January - Green
February - Blue (lt to med)
March - Indigo (dark blue)
April - Violet (Purple)

You will receive 12 strips back everytime.

Guaranteed Giggles

Elaine and Gary live in catalogs - and this blog features pictures of their "home" with clever and witty captions that are just plain ridiculous and funny, funny, funny. I go for this sort of humor and some of the posts make me laugh out loud. Give it a whirl and see what you think.

http://catalogliving.tumblr.com/

News from our Board

(Calvin Coolidge bedroom - picture from the Library of Congress site)

There were two meetings last week in anticipation of the beginning of the Quilters Squared 2011-2012 year. Nancy Stanley, our president, met with the program committee, Nancy Wyseand Deb Badour. I also attended to represent the guild blog. The girls have many of the meetings pinned down as to program and activities and have plans in the work for the remainder of the meetings. They have a $2700 budget agreed on by the board for this year. $25.00 will be charged for a $35.00 class which constitutes a benefit to being a member. Deb noted that she has struck a deal with a supplier so that the pattern needed for one of the classes will be $6.00 instead of $8.00 and ruler $14 instead of $18. The latter two items are in addition to the class fee.

At the board meeting with President Nancy Stanley, Marlene Perry, Secretary Jackie Fellows and Treasurer Earlene Albee the bylaws were looked at and changes suggested. One of the items discussed was the charge of $5 for a nonmemeber to attend a meeting when we have a paid speaker.

Committees should be advised of what is expected of them and also that the expectations may change from year to year.

Treasurer's report to be given t beginning, middle and end of year in newsletter.

Vice President will provide list for members to sign in at meetings and update e-mail, address, etc., if needed and pass along to Secretary and Treasurer.

Other items were discussed and will be forthcoming later.

It has been learned that there will be a new quilt shop "Park Bench" opening in September, at Wheeler Road and Swede. Ann Symansky and Pattie Raponos are owners. Suggested that they be invited to give a brief talk in regard to their new shop at the September meeting.

The search goes on for a new quilt show committee chairman.

Here is the signup for door prizes for 2010-20-11 (Gift should be valued between $10 and $15)

September -----------------------Marcia Stanick
October---------------------------Helen Mudd
November------------------------Karen Gruber
December (Banquet)--------------Nancy Wyse
January---------------------------Robyn House Guettler
February-------------------------Leslie Peterson
March----------------------------Carol Rose
April------------------------------Linda McGibbon
May------------------------------Deb Badur
June (Banquet)-------------------Jackie Fellows

Hope you are all having a good summer out there and getting lots of things ready for Show and Tell for the coming guild year. If any of you have anything you would like to blog about or have blogged, just get in touch and we can make it happen. Happy quilting!

Sit n Sew Reminder

Just a reminder that there will be a Sit N Sew on Tuesday July 20, 2010 at

Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church 10 am. - 3 pm.

Bring a project to work on and enjoy the day sewing and chatting!

Don't forget your sewing machine, supplies, a sack lunch (or visit one of the fine sandwich shops in the area). A small donation is accepted to give to the church to help pay for electricity and such. Come and enjoy the day with your fellow quilters.

Just for Fun...

...why not try something "different" this summer - here are a couple of easy tutorials you might like to experiment with...

The Disappearing 9 Patch is super simple...

...so is a Value Quilt...both are good for using up stash...

Let us know if you find a "fun" tutorial on the web so we can share. Look forward to seeing all your Show and Tell in September!

Sit and Sew Tomorrow

Are you coming to Sit and Sew tomorrow? Hope to see you there. Don't forget it's 10:00 to 3:00 at the Chapel Lane Church on Jefferson and Chapel Lane--come for all or part of the day. Lunch is what you want it to be - bring it along or go out with some of the girls who usually chose that option. Bring along your sewing machine or something to do by hand. Such a great way to get to know each other. We each put some money in an envelope to give to the church - such a wonderful place to be able to use. See you!!!!

Shopping for a new Machine?

Here are some tips I recently saw in a Quilter's newsletter I received. I'd like to say I'm looking for a new machine - but may be a few years yet (darn)....which is why I especially like tip #6 (LOL) - Enjoy! Jewels

From Loose Threads June 2010the newsletter of Quilter's Connection Magazine:
6 points to consider before purchasing your next sewing machine...

I'm in a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine. When I purchased it almost 10 years ago, it was a top-of-the-line machine, and I loved it. I still love it, but she's beginning to show her age. And she's getting to be a bit temperamental, too. So I thought it might be time to trade her in for a newer model (shhh, don't tell her that, she doesn't know yet!)

But how do you buy a sewing machine? Last time, I went for the same brand, and took advantage of a sale. I spent every penny I had, and I still haven't tried all the stitches! This time I wanted to do a little more research. There are so many new machines available today, that I thought I should learn as much as I could before making a decision. After all, sewing machines can cost almost as much as a new car today! I want to make sure I get the best value for my dollar, and the right machine for my needs.

So, where should you start? And what should you know before you buy? Here are 6 questions to ask yourself before you go shopping.

1. How much do you want to spend? This is probably the most important consideration. Think of all the costs involved - the extra attachments, a new table, taxes, etc, etc. It can all add up - to a lot of money!

2. How much will you be sewing? Are you a casual sewer or quilter? Or do you have a home-based business? Are you a beginner, or an expert? Be honest so you don't overspend on a machine that will sit and collect dust.

3. What will you be using the machine for? There are many specialty machines on the market today - embroidery, quilting, sergers, or just basic mechanical models. Will you be doing mostly quilting, or sewing a variety of projects using different fabrics and stitches? This will determine what type of machine you will want to purchase, and some of the options you will require.

4. How much space do you have? Do you have an entire room dedicated to sewing? Then you might consider purchasing a new table along with the machine. If your sewing room is a corner of the dining room table, you will want to purchase a machine that can easily be stored when you have company for dinner.

5. Should you buy new or used? Purchasing a new machine will get you the latest in technology, at a higher price. If you want a good work-horse. but with fewer bells and whistles that the new machines have, you may decide to purchase used. When buying a used machine, purchase from a dealer rather than on Craigslist or your local paper. Dealers usually offer a warranty on used machines, and they have been cleaned and repaired.

6. Can you carry it? Or do you need to? This is something I never thought of when I purchased my current machine. Since then, I've attended many quilting classes and have struggled every time to drag my very heavy machine to the car, then from the trunk into class. And back again. If you're planning to use your machine at any sewing class or retreat, opt for a lighter weight machine.

Write your answers down on a piece of paper, and take that sheet with you when you go shopping. You'll be armed with information that will help to determine the right machine for you, and you'll leave the shop a satisfied customer!

Final Meeting until September

We met for dinner a Shirlene's last night - our final meeting until September. Sit and Sews will continue, however, so we can still see some of our quilting buddies at those meetings. Think I see our president in this photo.

I am going to get myself in trouble if I try to name everyone! Don't forget what an old woman I am and it takes me time to put names with faces, all of which I recognize! So sorry, my quilting buddies! Just enjoy all the good looking gals and bright smiles! We also had some show and tell - this from the Cogs and Wheels class.

Our paper piecer extraordinaire shows the piece she has made for the Hoffman Challenge. Gorgeous.

Such nice, big smiles.
And here is the pretty gal who did such a good job heading up our quilt show.


Three more nice big smiles for our camera.
This one is entitled "Pretty in Pink".

This lady is holding the winning ticket for the door prize!

Waiting for dinner! What a nice group of women. Have a wonderful summer and we will see you in September - and will see some of you at the Sit and Sews each month! (Click to enlarge)